Monday, May 11th, 2015 - oil cooler, electrical, panel, avionics

This will be a long post - there is a lot to catch up on.  I arrived at the point where I really had to make some decisions regarding the electrical system, and spent a lot of time reading, doing research and talking to folks.  I also found some good deals on avionics I needed, particularly the Garmin GPS 400W I was looking for.

Finished up the oil cooler mounting.  The plans call for removing part of the mounting flange to provide sufficient clearance between it and the engine mount.  I taped up all the cooling fins so there would be no possibility of getting any filings in the fins and possibly reducing the airflow or clogging it in some way.

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Once the flange was ground down I was able to mount the cooler on the aft baffle.

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Plenty of clearance between the cooler and the engine mount.  I'll run the oil lines later.  I'm not totally sure if I will have to take this off again or not.

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Jesse Saint at Saint Aviation picked up a salvaged RV that was involved in an accident (no one hurt thankfully) and put the Garmin up on the classifieds at ==VAF==.  I've found quite a lot of good gear and deals there, but this was the best.

Here's the GPS 400W I got from Jesse.  Almost brand new.  Came with a terrain card, but no data card.  Not surprising - those dudes are pricey.  I took it over to Jim at Bay Avionics and had him bench test it.  He yellow tagged it and said it worked perfectly.  :))))  I'm sure Jesse would stand behind it, but it was a relief to know it was in good shape.  Jesse also included the antenna and tray/shells.  This will allow me to fly IFR, including coupled approaches with the Dynon A/P, as well as serve as a certified source for ADS/B out.

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I was looking for a second comm radio and Jesse happened to have a couple of Icom A210s at a very good price, so I picked one of those up as well.  I already had an SL40 I purchased from Mitch Locke (Van's east coast representative), so I'll have 2 comm radios as well.

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Got out the carb so I could document the serial number and make sure it was in good shape, but deferred on putting it on in case I had to take it back off.  I only have a couple of gaskets.

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Once I was done with that it was time to finalize the panel.  I cut out a piece of masonite board the same size as the panel so I could put full size instrument mockups (or the instruments themselves if I had them) in there to check for fit as well as sit in it until I was comfortable with the switches and avionics setup.  This is pretty much the final version, although I changed my mind and decided to go with the Vertical Power VPX Sport instead of breakers.

After a lot of research, I decided to have Bill at

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I was not sure the D-10A (small rectangular instrument in the upper left of the panel) would fit since it's pretty deep and the skin slopes down, so I cut out the mount and mounted it in my panel mockup.  It will need a hole behind it to allow connection of the d-sub cabling and the pitot-static/AOA tubing, but it fits just fine.

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Another shot to verify the D-10 clears ok.

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I plan to have the ADS/B unit wired up - including the antenna - even if I don't purchase it right away.  I picked up the Delta Pop ADS/B antenna from them.  They are great to deal with and the antenna appears to be a good quality unit.

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In the midst of all the planning (which is basically desk time) I decided to go ahead and run the static tube forward to supply the D-10A.  These are the clips I will use to hold the static tube going forward - they'll get riveted to the upper longeron when I rivet on the top skins.

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Completed clips.

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Another project was to figure out how to make up the radio stack.  Won't really get to the details until I have the panel cut and can then cut the sub panel for clearance.

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Test fitting the radio stack.  GPS on the bottom, then Icom A210, SL40, and on top will be a new GMA 240.

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After talking to a bunch of people and doing some research, I decided to have Bill at Up North Aviation do my panel.  I sent him a screenshot of something I mocked up in a free panel planning program, then we tweaked it over a period of about 2 weeks.  He is great to work with.  Once we had it close he created a full size PDF and sent it to me.  I printed it out on a large roll fed HP plotter and cut it out to fit my test panel.  The drawing he sent had a scale on it so that I could measure the print against an actual ruler - if the dimensions didn't match, the print wasn't the right size.  We ended up doing 5 or 6 rounds of mods, adding things I'd forgotten, tweaking things here and there and in some cases moving them 1/4" or so until it was perfect.  I was extremely happy with the process, and Bill worked with me as much as it took to make sure it matched up.

I had already sent him my Van's panel with a deposit, and once everything was finalized and dimensions were correct he cut it on his CNC panel cutter. Beautiful work - everything fit perfectly.  I'd highly recommend him.  No way I could have done the kind of work he did, and I think the price was very reasonable.  Highly recommend him.

Here's the first of a series of full size drawings I tested with.

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This is getting near finalized.  I got a cheap piece of acrylic at Lowe's and spray glued the printout to it then cut it all out.  The acrylic was almost the exact same thickness as the aluminum panel, although much floppier obviously.  I ended up moving the radio stack to the left about 3/16" so the angle on the back side would have clearance.

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Example of the reference scale he gave me.  This is the final print before we decided to cut the panel for real.

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I received by Skyview the day before we were going to cut, so I was able to put the real deal in instead of my foam mockup.  This just confirmed we had everything correctly placed & sized.

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Final mockup before cutting.

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Here's the finished panel from Bill. Since I'm putting a map box on the right side, he offered to cut me a door from a piece of scrap.  You can just make it out from the different grain.  It fits like a piece of furniture inlay - perfect fit - you can just barely see the seam.  Very happy with this.

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And here it is with some actual avionics in it.  Since I have the VPX and most of the other components, I can start laying out the gear behind the panel and figure out where everything will go.

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Here's the VP-X Sport from Vertical Power.  It's an electronic circuit breaker box that interfaces with the Dynon (and other EFIS panels) and eliminates nearly all the circuit protection as well as giving a lot of flexibility (the breakers can be set in software to any value you want).

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From Finish Kit

The other really great piece of gear I ended up going with is the Approach Fast Stack system.  This is a passive cross connect (PMA'd no less - so it's certified) that can cross connect virtually any avionics with the right cables.  I had them make up cables for the GMA 240, Skyview, GPS 400W, the Comm radios, Dynon ARINC, ELT, transponder, etc.

The cool thing is if I ever add another EFIS or change to a new GPS or something, all I have to do is call them and get the new cable.  The other really interesting feature is it will share the GPS data with the transponder and the D-10A so I can use the D-10A with the GPS as well.  Slick.  All you have to do is connect the power to the boxes and you're pretty much done.

When we added a GNS430 to our Cherokee, the avionics wiring cost nearly $5,000 and took more than a week.  This does the same thing for way less than 1/2 the price.

Just for reference, I had several avionics shops quote the panel wiring for breakers, switches and all the gear I have.  The *best* quote was over $8,000.  Most were north of $10,000.

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Back side of the Skyview - checking the clearance on the cables.

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Dynon transponder - this will interface with the ADS/B and GPS to provide ADS/B in/out for 2020  compliance.

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Dynon EMS (engine monitoring system).  There are two large dsub connectors on the other side that provide tach, oil pressure/temperature, fuel flow, carb inlet temp, manifold pressure, cht and egt readings for all 4 cylinders and a bunch of other stuff.  Replaces a whole panel full of instruments.

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Cut the hole for cable and plumbing for the D-10A.

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Laid out and cut the hole in the sub panel for the Van's map box.

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Front side of the map box.  I plan to come up with a flush mount hinge and latch so it's push to open (not magnetic obviously - it will have to be some type of mechanical latch system).  McMaster Carr and some others have units that should be suitable.

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